Immigration issues panel tonight at Carbondale’s Third Street Center

Immigrant rights leader Sarahi Salamanca will speak tonight as part of a panel discussion about immigration issues. Salamanca is the founder and CEO of Dreamers Roadmap, a nonprofit that has provided scholarships to more than 20,000 undocumented American students.

Salamanca understands the challenges many of these students face; she was an undocumented student as well, and she had to leave school to help support her family. She later graduated from Cañada College.

In 2016, Forbes included her in its “30 under 30” list, and the White House honored her as a Champion of Change in 2014.

The free panel will begin at 7 p.m. tonight at Third Street Center in Carbondale. It’s hosted by GlenX and Two Rivers Unitarian Universalist.

“We’re still going to push Congress to take action, because that’s still what needs to happen.”— Sophia Clark, regional coordinator and incident hotline manager, Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition

Meanwhile, another immigrant rights leader said Monday that despite the stay provided by a Supreme Court ruling last week giving Dreamers a reprieve as the deadline to come up with a fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program approached, the continued period of uncertainty is difficult.

“At this point, there is both relief in that folks are not going to immediately lose their status, but a lot of anxiety too,” said Sophia Clark, regional coordinator and incident hotline manager for the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition.

“A lot of people did expect to lose their status [Monday],” she said. “But the recent court rulings should not be looked at by Congress as an excuse not to take action.”

What exactly the “arbitrary date” set by President Trump to have Congress come up with a solution to provide a path to citizenship for Dreamers would mean was always uncertain, Clark said.

“We’re still going to push Congress to take action, because that’s still what needs to happen,” she said.

So far, the compromise measures to reach a joint resolution on the matter have not been acceptable, Clark added.

“It goes against the values of our community, and they are simply inhumane,” she said of efforts to beef up border security and build a wall, as Trump has pushed to do.

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